1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to medical devices and more particularly, embodiments relate to wire guides and methods for making wire guides.
2. Background
Wire guides are used to gain access to specific inner areas of the body. The wire guide may enter the body through a small opening and travel to parts of the body through body channels. For example, wire guides may be passed through the body via peripheral blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, or the urinary tract. Wire guides are commercially available and are currently used in cardiology, gastroenterology, urology, and radiology. Once in place at a desired location in the body, wire guides are commonly used as guides for the introduction of additional medical instruments, e.g., catheters.
One design challenge for wire guides is that they need to have sufficient stiffness for a surgeon to push the wire guide through a patient's body lumen while at the same time having enough flexibility at the distal end to avoid damaging the body lumen or plastically deforming Improved strength and enhanced flexibility, however, are two properties which for the most part are diametrically opposed to one another. That is, an increase in one of these properties usually involves a decrease in the other. Accordingly, further improvements and enhancements in the strength and flexibility of wire guides may be desirable.